Thinking of you...

Hello Everyone! Just a quick post today to share a sympathy card I made for a friend lost her sister unexpectedly. I pulled this pretty paper from Cosmo Cricket out weeks ago and had a vague idea of what I wanted the card to look like. There it has sat gathering dust, awaiting some inspiration. The papers are so detailed and pretty that they seemed to compete with every image I tried.

Eventually I went with this beautiful background stamp from Unity Stamps and a word greeting from a retired SU set, All Year Cheer I. The filigree background was stamped in Cajun Craze and sponged liberally with Vintage Photo Distress ink. The greeting was stamped in Early Espresso, cut out with an oval Nestability and sponged with the same Distress ink. An Early Espresso satin ribbon bow with long tails and some copper brads finish it off.

The inside is finished simply with one of the other coordinating prints and plenty of space for a hand-written note. This layout would be pretty with holiday papers and a pretty embossed Christmas greeting. Hmmm, I feel another card coming on...

Hope you're having a good day~

Happy Fall

Good morning! Boy it's been awhile since I've posted- too much going on in the Karpen house! Hubby has been traveling a lot (6 trips in 6 weeks-yikes!), swim meets, homecoming, Girl Scouts, etc. To add to the chaos, we ripped out our master bathroom last week ("we" being a good friend who is a builder) so hubby and I are "sharing" my closet and a small bathroom in our playroom- good thing he's traveling so much this month :) All of this has left little time for me to stamp and not much Mojo to go with it.

While I was searching for some inspiration, I came across this week's SFYTT (sketch for you to try) and decided to give it a whirl. Starting with a sketch is the easiest and fastest way to get a card done- look a the sketch elements, pick the papers, pick the stamp set, then just add the accents at the end- done! It may seem weird to pick the papers before the stamp set, but I often get more inspiration that way- it's also a good idea to dig through your patterned paper scraps- you'll be surprised at what combinations leap out of the box.

My scrap box yielded this fall combo from some scrapbooking left-overs from a few years back and I decided to pair them with this "Pure Innocence" digital stamp from Heather Ellis. I stitched a simple zigzag stitch across the bottom of the brown leaf paper then just layered the papers as in the sketch. The sketch didn't have an easy place for a greeting so I made a strip in Photoshop with "Happy Fall" (or "Fall Happy" as I now realize it looks like on the left-lol! Some felt flowers and leaf buttons from my stash finish it off.

The main image was printed out on Very Vanilla card stock, colored it with Copics, then her polka dotted dress was paper pieced  over the top. when paper piecing, it is key to color first then glue the paper pieces on last- otherwise stray bits of glue can act as a resist when you try to color.  I sponged a bit of So Saffron over the background- it's not as dark IRL and gives a soft glow.

The inside is finished with a strip of the brown leaf print and a strip pf the pumpkin patterned paper punched with the scallop trim border punch from Stampin' Up. I left it blank inside for now so I can decide whether to use it for Halloween or, more likely, Thanksgiving.

That's it for today- I'll be back tomorrow with a simple sympathy card I made for a friend. Have a great day~

Birthday Fairy...

Thank goodness it's Thursday! This means that the week is almost over and I have survived another birthday! For some reason this birthday hit me in a funny way and I was absolutely not enthusiastic about it. I turned down a fancy dinner with my hubby, didn't want cake- just generally cross all around. I ended up making a nice dinner at home (shrimp scampi with gelato and champagne for dessert- my kitchen is the best restaurant I know-lol!). I decided I needed to make myself a birthday card to cheer myself up!

I had borrowed a couple MFT stamps from a friend awhile back and stamped a whole bunch of images to keep in a stash for "later". I decided to pull out one of those cute Jolinne stamps- Fairy Sweet" for my card. The image was stamped in Memento "Tuxedo Black" on Whisper White card stock and colored with Copic markers. The polka dots on her leggings were made with a darker shade of purple to mimic the polka dot paper underneath.

Her wings were colored with a very light yellow-green, then colored with Versamarker and Iridescent Ice embossing powder to give them sparkle and shine! This close-up shows that either I need a Copic coloring class or she needs a die job-lol! The card was put together with a Perfect Plum 5-3/4" card base and patterned papers from the My Mind's Eye Penny Lane Collection- so sparkly and fun!

The inside was finished with a birthday greeting and a coordinating mix of the patterned papers, scallop punched edges and stitching. All in all, a great card to give myself, although it will probably go to whoever is my daughter's next friend with a birthday:)

The best part about birthdays: they only come once a year and they beat the alternative!

Simple Thanksgiving

Hi Everyone! Just a quick post today to share the last in the series of cards we made last week at my stamp class. By the end of last week, I was completely out of creative Mojo and could not for the life of me come up with a great Thanksgiving card. I played with several fall sets and finally decided on Autumn Splendor with a simple layout.

The card base is a single sheet of 4-1/4 x 5-1/2" Cajun Craze onto which I layered a standard A2 Whisper White card, trimmed just an 1/8" on each side to fit onto the Cajun backer. I used a single layer backer on cards like this because the white card stock doesn't generally feel sturdy enough to support all the other layers on the front.

The windows were made by punching 1-3/8" squares evenly spaced in a 5-1/2 x 2-3/4" white strip and 1/2" strips of each color were added on the top and bottom edges. The leaves were stamped in Old Olive, So Saffron and Cajun Craze, cut out and mounted on double thick dimensional dots to stand out from the frame. A greeting from the Teeny Tiny Wishes set was stamped with Basic Black ink and punched with the Word Window punch. 

Super simple and easy to mass produce for the holidays!

Hope you're having a great day~

 




Supplies:
Stamps: Autumn Splendor, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Paper: Whisper White, Old Olive, So Saffron, Cajun Craze
Ink: Old Olive, So Saffron, Cajun Craze, Basic Black
Accessories: 1-3/8"Square Punch, Word Window Punch, dimensionals

Feeling corky...

Hi Everyone! Just wanted to sneak in a quick post before I head outside to putter in the garden- it's such a beautiful day it is here in Houston- 85, sunny and low humidity- just gorgeous! It's been such a long summer (a good thing unless you live way down south, then it's just way too hot for way too long!) that we're glad to feel the cool off and be able to ride bikes and play outside again.

OK, onto my card for the day. I bought some cork sheets awhile back that have been sitting on my desk waiting for some Mojo and my monthly stamp class was the perfect excuse I needed to break them out. I was inspired by a card in the Idea Book & Catalog that used the "Pick a Petal" set and changed it up to suit my style.

The flower petals were stamped in Baja Breeze and Chocolate Chip- I have to admit this set used to be hard to position, but after converting it to a clear mount set with thin EZ Mount cling foam, it is much easier to see where the petals will fall, so to speak! I am in the process of converting my favorite sets from wood to cling, but it's a slow process!

I stamped the open petal image on the cork sheets and cut them out with regular paper scissors- a bit thick, but soft so they cut easily. The rest of the card is CAS (clean and simple)- the edge of the Saffron paper punched with the scallop trim border punch and a greeting from the "Teeny Tiny Wishes" set punched with the Word Window punch and layered onto a Modern Label punched from Saffron.

Hope you're having good weather where you are and get a chance to relax before the week starts!

Supplies:
Stamps: Pick a Petal, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Paper: Chocolate Chip, So Saffron, Baja Breeze, Whisper White
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze
Accessories: Cork sheets, Scallop Trim border punch, Word Window punch, Modern Label punch

Awash with flowers...

Woo-hoo it's Friday! I am absolutely ready for the weekend and it looks like we will finally have perfect weather (60/85 degrees with low humidity) after a very long summer! I am actually feeling motivated to get out in the garden to do some much needed clean-up and fall planting. In keeping with the sunny weather, I was in the mood for something bright and cheery and finally inked up this set, appropriately named "Awash with Flowers".

At each class I try to introduce new techniques to the group (and re-visit them for old-timers)- this card uses two-step stamping, masking and sponging. To give myself a sense of borders, I die cut my white shape before stamping- the new clear mount stamps make it much easier to position images! I first stamped the black outlines of the flowers, then stamped the "filling" for each flower. Each flower outline was then stamped onto computer paper and cut out to use as "masks". The mask is applied over the image with re-positionable adhesive- this allows you to layer images and protects it from stray marks or sponged colors. I left the masks in place while I stamped the flower stems and sponged the background with Marina Mist ink.

The Chocolate Chip card base was made layered with Whisper White, Daffodil Delight and pattered papers from the "Greenhouse Gala" set, separated by a strip of Poppy Parade ribbon. The image was layered onto a Marina Mist die cut shape and paired with a simple little greeting- I intentionally left the inside blank so I can use it for a birthday or other occasion as I need.

Tomorrow I will share another version of this card that showcases the "More is More" idea- more layers, more embellishments, more stuff- and you can decide which one is better!

Have a great weekend~

VIntage Halloween...

I finally got my baby out of the Apple Store hospital, complete with new hard drive, so I'm up and running again-yay! I've been an Apple user since about 1984, so not much surprises or impresses me at this point- except the Time Machine backup system. Now, my computer has been set to do the automatic backups to our Time Capsule and I haven't been 100% confident if there was really an issue that this would work out. Yesterday, however, I took the plunge and let it "restore" my entire computer from the backup- applications, settings- the whole deal. Results? It took a really long time, but when it rebooted, it was exactly where I left everything the day it died, down to my desktop picture and the web browser pages I had open- seriously amazing!

OK, onto stamping! This Friday is my monthly class so I am trying to make cards that are not too complicated and can easily be finished while we gab and eat, because that's a part part of the deal-lol! Restraining myself from lots of layers and embellishments is a major challenge- I have a hard time feeling like a card is finished without some extra bling!

This set called "Greeting Card Kids" was one of the few from the main Idea Book & Catalog that immediately grabbed my eye- I love the vintage feel and the cute, chubby little kids- too sweet! I dug through my Halloween paper for some not-so-scary looking paper to go along with her and found some perfect pieces from a retired pack called "Halloween Nights". I used some simple layers with silver brads in the corners to set them off.

I stamped the little girl witch in Memento Tuxedo Black and colored her with Copic markers to match the background papers. The image and the background layer were cut out using nested dies on my Sizzix machine.  A sheer dotted ribbon bow and a greeting from the retired "All Year Cheer" set finish it off.

The inside was finished simply with a bottom border and a leaf from the retired "Autumn Harvest" set- definitely an old favorite that will be converted to clear mount!

Have a wonderful day- enjoy the sunshine and beautiful weather if you're here in Houston- it's about time!